


Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

by EnemyMine



Series: Wants, needs and realities [8]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Study, Episode: s04e24 Angel of Death, POV Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-03
Updated: 2016-11-03
Packaged: 2018-08-28 20:35:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8462050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EnemyMine/pseuds/EnemyMine
Summary: The CIA wants Homeland Security to conduct agency-wide polygraph tests at NCIS.Homeland Director Tom Morrow has been briefed and he is now trying to reconcile the agency he once headed with what it apparently has become.





	

Agency wide polygraph testing had been ordered for the entirety of NCIS. Although they were currently in the process of cleaning up their act, the CIA still had doubts concerning the recent security leaks and obviously the previous director, Shepard. 

After the clean-up his former agency had required, Tom Morrow had to admit, he could see their point. During more than one of his nights in his office – at home or at Homeland – he wondered, if he should have seen, should have anticipated that she would turn out as a loose cannon. He had approved her candidature for the position after all.  
But than Shepard had her years and experiences, as an investigator, undercover, operations and working politics. All what a director should know and see before being placed in a position to put others into the line of fire.  
No as much as Tom was beating himself over the head, there had been nothing to indicate that Shepard would use NCIS as a tool for personal revenge given half the chance.

It's only been been about 24 months since Tom Morrow had ceased to be the Director of NCIS and Jennifer Shepard had managed to turn his agency on its head in just about 18 of them. ¹  
Yes, he was aware that she was only partly to blame, but then she had been the director and had to be held to the highest standards.

Same really with the agents. First and foremost Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Special Agent in Charge of the Major Crime Response Team located out of the Navy Yard. The premier team on a global scale. At least that it had been during his tenure.  
As he understood from his briefing by his friend Bob, a director of CIA, there had been a drastic decline in performance since his departure.  
Closure rates hadn't have dropped until Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo had taken his due promotion to lead his own team located out of Rota. But a lot of these cases had been thrown out of court on technicalities due to unclean procedures. 

From his own experiences with the man, Tom knew very well that Gibbs was hot-headed when it came to his cases. He was like a dog with a bone it that way.  
He needed the management as such on a tight leash. Enough freedom to not feel threatened, not enough rope to hang himself.  
He understood that mentality. It was the same with most career military men.  
The former Gunny was not that different than the thousands of men and women under the command of former Rear Admiral of the US Navy Tom Morrow. Something Gibbs had understood and acknowledged. As far as he knew, Tom was still the only man Gibbs called “sir” and meant it since the Gunny retired from the Marine Corps.  
But then he hadn't seen the man for a while. Might be that his erstwhile subordinate had lost that tendency too after the explosion on board the “Bakir Kamir”. Would leave lesser men with scrambled brains, not to forget previous injuries to the head obtained in the line of duty.

When Bob told him, that apparently no one had known about the injury and subsequent coma in 1991, Tom had barely been able to hold in his laughter of disbelief.  
After all he knew very well that it all was part of Gunnery Sergeant L. J. Gibbs' jacket, which had become part of his personnel file once he had joined the still very military NIS in August of that same year. What easier way for the agency to keep track of the resume of its agents – and to keep track of potential risks and or reactivations.  
Gibbs was only one of many who joined the Reserve after their active years and could be called back to duty at anytime. Or who had taken part in classified ops while active, which could come back to haunt anyone of them.  
Better to keep all “I”s dotted, all “T”s crossed and all ducks in a row. Which was the epitome of military bureaucracy.

True, Gibbs had not received a medical discharge, but barely so. With his recuperation and bereavement leave he simply was still off duty and had such not needed to re-qualify before handing in his resignation from the Corps.  
Of course he had not shown any signs of debilitation during his time with the agency. His performance always had been exemplary both during PT and at the shooting range. His investigative skills were solid, his famous gut had shown to be an immeasurable instrument of success, and his interrogation techniques were unparallelled.  
Somehow however Gibbs had managed to skip the psychological evaluation as well the polygraph, once both had become mandatory.  
But then he had already been with NCIS for a couple of years, having been made team leader after Franks' retirement – and hadn't that been a day for celebration for the newly minted director, himself, and his receding hairline then – and being on various undercover operations all throughout Europe. Since he never was out for longer than the usual regrouping, there had not been a need to put him through all of that.

Heck, he managed to get shot at multiple times and was blown up on that op with the MCRT in Rota, when they took Hussan Muhammed out, which led to the termination of Agent Blackadder from Gibbs' team.  
Her skills were not up par with Gibbs' expectations, even after a couple of months under the tutelage of him and mostly DiNozzo, and her drive for revenge made her unfit to work in an environment where she could be seduced to follow her feelings instead of using a level head. Last Tom knew she had gone back to the FBI after she refused to be transferred to the Northeast Field Office or one of its subordinate locations.

Anyway, from what DiNozzo had reported when being coerced, and Gibbs naturally omitted, the explosion of a grenade had led to a nasty fall backwards down the stairs from the helmstand to deck. It was unlikely that the older agent had any way to shield his head during that.  
So make that a likely untreated concussion.  
The team might have been mostly desk- and DC-bound for a couple of weeks afterwards, due to being a team member short and TADs running for the hills once confronted with “the second b”. There were just so many times Agents Dobbs and Pacci could fill in. Both obviously having earned Gibbs' respect at one point or the other. Small miracles!  
Still raised questions about the state of Gibbs' brain. Post-Concussion Syndrome was still a highly debated topic, but not to be easily dismissed. ²

So, well, Bob informed him of the “surprises” Gibbs' latest head injury had uncovered, which gave Tom a good idea how far Shepard must have fallen before she got caught up in that whole mess.  
The Jennifer Shepard, who had been a good agent, seasoned operative and pretty good politician when he had approved of her candidacy, would have never not at least read the jackets of those who she would rely on.  
Tom could only guess, that her prior acquaintance with Gibbs together with her erroneous belief of needing revenge for her father's death – a suicide by all accounts – had led her to break one of Gibbs' precious rules. “Do not assume”, which ranked eighth, he believed. As his former “Probie” she really should have known better.

As misguided Shepard had herself proven to be and as much as she tried to misappropriate agency resources, she had not yet been the reason for the need of a clean-up on a very large scale.  
The trigger had been pulled by an author called Thom E. Gemcity, who during working hours listened to the name of Timothy McGee. Junior Agent on the MCRT.  
Oh, how the mighty have fallen!

Tom still could very much remember the months leading up to the transfer of that nervous wreck from the Field Office in Norfolk to headquarters. He had been just that much removed from the action as to see how DiNozzo had played his “boss” into requesting the young agent as his “probie”.  
DiNozzo had seen something in that young man, despite his stutter, youthful puffy face, lack of experience as an investigator and proclivity to rely too much on technology. Back in those days, when Gibbs trusted his Second not only to have his six but to be basically his partner.  
Hence DiNozzo got his very own “Probie” and it had been understood that Gibbs would sign the progress reports, but his Second would be the one to train him up to standard. And boy, did he ever. Just a couple of months of his tutelage and the meek young man started to show his potential for those not blessed with Anthony DiNozzo's 20/10 vision.  
Just where within that a little more than three years had McGee gone astray and gotten the idea, it was advisable to publish a barely disguised novelization of NCIS' internal matters?

They had a good family dynamic going for a time, and while Tom was not blind to especially Agent Caitlyn Todd's flaws, he whole-heartedly had approved of them being that near impenetrable unit. Including Dr. Mallard and Dr. Sciuto, as much as that was case of contempt for other teams sometimes.  
The only thing unnerving about this was that no matter what, Gibbs protected Dr. Sciuto to the point of irresponsibility. 

She was a renowned forensic scientist, specialized in weaponry. Closer to her end-thirties by now than to her mid-thirties, but led people believe she was in her twenties. Never had missed a day of work as far as Tom knew.  
Unable to give a reputable testimony in court.  
Also unable to share her workplace with other technicians or assistants, which had led to the slow migration towards the evidence garage during his time.  
Since she still delivered fast and precise results and Gibbs was so very protective of her, he had let her. Maybe a mistake, if he now looked back at it. Hindsight is 20/20 as they say.

The number of cases that didn't end in a verdict according to the outcome of the investigation for the MCRT had gradually increased. Nowadays the Defense actually just waited for any reason to bring Dr. Sciuto to the stand.  
Nobody could argue the results of her tests, but most juries would take her words with more than a grain of salt just for the way she delivered them. Together with obvious discomfort from not being used to wear smart clothing, which was in her case at best ill-fitting to boot, she simply didn't come across as serious scientist with various degrees.

Lost cases meant primarily people were being acquitted that should be behind bars, criminals and terrorists who got away scot-free. Secondarily the budget of the agency relied on its efficiency.  
Solved cases were good, but not enough on Capitol Hill to get the money flow redirected towards the “Navy Cops”; Cases brought to court and ended in a favorable verdict did. Criminals and terrorists off the streets was the currency the NCIS paid its dues in.

Well, nothing he could change now. Dr. Sciuto and her behavior were not his responsibility anymore, as long as the recent polygraph didn't show some risk for national security from her.

But he mused, she had only really gotten worse after she formed a bond with Agent Todd. A game of one-upmanship to the disadvantage of Agent DiNozzo that was initiated by the man himself to give the new probationary agent and only woman on the immediate Team Gibbs something to cling to when times got rough. As they so often tended to when handling major crimes and terrorist threats. 

Agent Todd had agent training but was no investigator, having been on the President's security detail with the Secret Service. Although as such having gone through the Criminal Investigator Training Program at FLETC in Glynco, Georgia and the advanced training offered by the Secret Service in their own facilities in DC, she had only ever had to rely on her skills in basic profiling and personal security.  
The demands of NCIS were in a sense broader and at the same time more specialized than that. There was a reason they had their own FLETC training facility in Charleston, South Carolina. And why Agent Todd had to go through the whole program upon her hiring.  
Not that it would have clued her in to her inexperienced status. 

Gibbs had called it “she's got balls”, Tom oftentimes had called it bordering on insubordination and crossing the lines to harassment. Todd had been dismissive of DiNozzo's skills and experience because he had been “just a cop” and had majored in Physical Education. Not taken into into account the actual range of that major and that he had graduated with a baccalaureate degree all the same.  
For all her boasting about her profiling training, she was trapped in a cycle of confirmation bias and had screwed up cases because of it.  
Tom had fought many a fights with Gibbs about his Junior Agent and only yielded with just adding commentary and not official reprimands onto her file, because the older agent insisted he had it under control and her on a tight leash. It helped her case as much, if not even a bit more, that DiNozzo actually admitted in a conversation off the record that he played her and saw it as the most effective way to break her out of her nasty habit.

In the end he nearly succeeded. But then Caitlyn Todd fell in the line of duty at the hands of a sniper.  
A preventable death if only the FBI had allowed them to pursue Ari Haswari after he had infiltrated NCIS, held Dr. Mallard, his assistant Mr Jackson and Agent Todd hostage and shot Mr Jackson. An injury he never was able to fully recover from.  
It was one of the very few times Tom would have gladly unleashed the force that was Gibbs. He wouldn't have rested until he had brought him down. And hard.

Yes, he himself was no innocent lambkin and human enough to know about his flaws. Someone had threatened his agency, his men and women and usually they would have paid for it. But the FBI stated their case and there had been nothing he could have done different at the time with the information available then.  
Now however times had changed and if he still was responsible for NCIS, he would do his damnedest to bring the scheming bastard Eli David down. But then he would not have the information he had now as head of Homeland Security.

Which brought him to Ziva David. Brought in by his successor, she was styled “Liaison Officer” and placed on the MCRT out of headquarters.  
A spy and assassin, Kidon unit, daughter of Eli, allegedly born 1982, as stated in her passport, but according to his sources older, though of course all hard evidence to that had been erased by Mossad. Had been the handler of Ari Haswari, half-brother to Ziva and spy within the ranks of Hamas, killer of Agent Todd.  
Everything was just that side of convoluted that it always smelled fishy to him. Didn't help that the number of MCRT cases admissible to court went down by a huge margin since Officer David's placing. Every evidence handled by her was able to be argued by the Defense, considered to be compromised or even illegally obtained since she simply was not a US agent and trained investigator with a sworn duty to uphold US laws.  
Add that to the fact that Gibbs was not as tightly controlled under his successor as he had been under Tom and one might be able to not only smell the fish but see. If one squinted.

By accounts of Bob, Officer David had been reassigned to liaison duties in Dubai by Deputy Director Craig – a good man, steadfast even in a crisis, if a bit on the side of socialite sometimes – and under close surveillance since. Thus far she seemed to behave.

Agent DiNozzo must have sensed something amiss. Tom knew the young man's keen sense for details and leaps of intuition. Even if he didn't KNOW it yet, he felt it.  
No wonder he took the promotion. A team already off-kilter and then his leader had taken an undetermined leave of absence and left behind a disruptive Mossad Officer, an impressible Junior Agent and on top a director with a hidden agenda. Add to the mix the personal relationships of Dr. Mallard and Dr. Sciuto with Gibbs, shake it and voila a volatile cocktail par excellence. 

Tom couldn't fault him for saving his own hide. Just for leaving everybody else to do the damn clean-up from the fall-out.  
But well, at least newly appointed Director Granger seemed to be a pretty straight forward kind of guy. Thus far there had been no further complications

**Author's Note:**

> ¹ Had to stretch out the time line of the show a bit.  
> As I said during the last installment, I usually assume the air-dates align with the time within the show, but since Angel of Death and Bury your Dead are a two-parter spanning across the season break, I took some liberties with it. So both are taking place during September 2007 now. Which makes it two years since Tom Morrow left the reigns to Jenny Shepard and one year since Tony left for Rota.
> 
> ² The Benoit murders and suicide happened in June 2007, before that the general public mostly assumed that concussions were a matter of not falling asleep afterward and let it rest for a couple of days and you'll be right as rain soon. Only with the search for an answer for that horrible tragedy, general public became aware of aftereffects lasting years or possible a lifetime.  
> I remember it being wildly discussed and disputed and brains being scanned and dissected.  
>   
>   
> Additional notes:  
> I've tried to straighten out my time line for Tony once and for all.
> 
> He was in Alpha Chi Delta's pledge class of 1989. Assuming he graduated high school at 18 years old. Which would would make his birth year 1971.  
> (Some wikis and sites claim it to even be 1968 which would totally f*ck up all time lines. Couldn't find an iota of trace for it in the show and I tried hard. But I admit I still couldn't bring myself to watch Michael Weatherly's last episode, so sorry if it's in there.)
> 
> After College he must have attended Police Academy or a comparable facility in Illinois – due to his first job on the force being Peoria – which takes 25 weeks aka almost half a year there.
> 
> So he would have really started at Peoria PD at the turn of the year 1993 to 1994. He stayed for two years.
> 
> Early 1996 he would have made his way to Philadelphia. He stayed 18 months this time.
> 
> So he would come to Baltimore in the summer of 1997. Where I meet the missing - unexplained - time, a specialty of Anthony DiNozzo Jr., in which I just don't know...
> 
> According to everything we heard and saw, he was with Baltimore PD for two years before being snatched up by Gibbs.  
> As I stated in a previous installment of this series, I place the flashback-happenings of the episode “Baltimore” in autumn of 2001, having Tony join NCIS October-ish. The episode clearly states it to be 2001, it is clearly colder outside and Tony acknowledged his 2 year anniversary with NCIS during “The Curse” (s01e05), which is more autumn than spring.  
> Using basic math, that would prolong Tony's stay with Baltimore PD to a bit more than 4 years.  
> In the episode “Once a Crook” (s11e05; Air-date: 10/22/2013) DiNozzo is shown to have walked the beat in Baltimore 15 years ago, which according to my math would place him there October-ish 1998. A whole year before he even should be in Baltimore.
> 
> So I just go with the flow and declare him to have walked the beat for about a year/year and a half before finally making Detective and working for Homicide. He clearly won their Pool Championship thingy (and therefore the infamous Mighty Mouse stapler) for two years in that division.
> 
> Therefore:  
> 1971 – Anthony DiNzzo jr. is born  
> 1979 – Tony's mother died  
> 1983 – he is shipped off to boarding schools  
> 1988 – attends senior year at Remington Military Academy  
> 1989 – starts at OSU and pledges to Alpha Chi Delta  
> 1993 – graduates with a Bachelor of Science from OSU and attends Police Academy  
> 1994 – starts at Peoria PD  
> 1996 – leaves Peoria for Philadelphia PD  
> 1997 – leaves Philadelphia for Baltimore PD  
> 1999 – makes detective and transfers to Homicide  
> 2001 – leaves Baltimore and starts at NCIS  
> 2006 – takes promotion to Rota


End file.
